The Urban Politics of Mega-Events

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lauermann
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Potential Host ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Event Planning ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Mega Event

This article reviews recent scholarship on the urban politics of mega-events. Mega-events have long been promoted as drivers of urban development, based on their potential to generate beneficial legacies for host cities. Yet the mega-event industry is increasingly struggling to find cities willing to host. Political arguments that promote mega-events to host cities include narratives about mega-event legacy—the potential for events to generate long-term benefits—and mega-event leveraging—the idea that cities can strategically link event planning to other policy agendas. In contrast, the apparent decline in interest among potential host cities stems from two political shifts: skepticism toward the promises made by boosters, and the emergence of new kinds of protest movements. The article analyzes an example of largely successful opposition to mega-events, and evaluates parallels between the politics of mega-events and those of other urban megaprojects.

scholarly journals A Longitudinal Perspective on Sustainability and Innovation Governmentality: The Case of the Olympic Games as a Mega-Event

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Endrit Kromidha ◽  
Laura J. Spence ◽  
Stephanos Anastasiadis ◽  
Darla Dore
Keyword(s):  
Olympic Games ◽  
Strategic Decisions ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Innovative Methodology ◽  
Structured Analysis ◽  
Long Term Impact ◽  
Mega Event ◽  
The Olympic Games

The purpose of this research is to analyze how governance is related to sustainability and innovation in mega-events over time by looking at the Olympic Games as a case study. Three main contributions are made to management research and practice. First, Foucauldian governmentality is built upon and enriched with a longitudinal perspective by following the evolution of Visibility, Techne, Episteme, and Identity analytics of governmentality. Second, an innovative methodology based on interviews, a systematic documentary review, and software-assisted thematic auto-coding for a theory-led structured analysis is applied. Third, the theoretical and empirical contribution of this study on the longitudinal aspects of governmentality over different parties and outlets of information could be used to guide practical and strategic decisions for managers and policy makers. In addition to its scholarly importance, this work is needed because mega-events can have a sustainable long-term impact, balancing legacy and innovative change.

Mega-events and urban development: Olympics and legacies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Roche
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
The Other ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Urban Place ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
The One ◽  
Mega Event

This chapter explores the ‘material embedding’ of mega-event spectacles in the legacies they leave in host cities which can be of both a negative and positive kind, and consist of the creation of new place and space legacies. These themes are illustrated with reference to the modern Olympics, and particularly in the contemporary period. The chapter’s main focus is on Olympic mega-events as urban ‘place-makers’. That is they often involve new constructions, on the one hand of sports and related event facilities complexes, and on the other hand of community-related developments in housing and places of employment. Since the turn of the millennium they are now effectively required by the IOC bidding system to leave such legacies. The chapter explore such legacies in some detail in the influential case of the Sydney 2000 Olympic project which, in some respects, was understood to represent a ‘model’ for subsequent Olympic cities. The case of the Sydney Olympics is seen to show how mega-events can simultaneously be urban ‘space-makers’ as well as ‘place-makers’. Since Sydney mega-events have often been notably associated with strategically important values and policies of both ‘greening’ and humanising modern urbanisation through the provision of open and green spaces in urban centres.

Embedding mega-events: staging spectacles in changing cities

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Roche
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Public Areas ◽  
Functional Complex ◽  
Mega Event ◽  
Time Frames ◽  
Urban Places ◽  
Secondary Type

This chapter argues that the ‘spectacle’ of mega-events needs to be understood particularly at the level of host cities, and at that level in both in positive and negative terms and also in short and long-terms time-frames. Negatively events can, in the short-term, create spectacles and controversies in the form of the security they need, and in the long-term can create debts and ‘white elephant’ waste. They can also be understood in more positive terms as short-term performative ‘spectacles’ which are ‘embedded’ in the long-term physical legacies they leave in their host cities. It suggests that there are two main types of mega-event urban legacy. The main type is that of ‘place-making’ buildings and facilities, exemplified by iconic ‘starchitect’ architecture or functional architecture or both. The more secondary type is that of the ‘space-making’ creation or renewal of major green parks and open public areas. The chapter shows that while both Olympic and Expos mega-events have left ‘starchitecture’ legacies, Olympics have traditionally tended to leave more of the ‘functional complex’ type of urban places, and Expos have tended to leave more of the ‘open public space’ and ‘recreational green park’ type urban spaces.

scholarly journals From Ephemeral Planning to Permanent Urbanism: An Urban Planning Theory of Mega-Events

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Kassens-Noor
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Planning Theory ◽  
Place Marketing ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Mega Event

Mega-events like the Olympic Games are powerful forces that shape cities. In the wake of mega-events, a variety of positive and negative legacies have remained in host cities. In order to bring some theoretical clarity to debates about legacy creation, I introduce the concepts of the mega-event utopia, dystopia and heterotopia. A mega-event utopia is ideal and imaginary urbanism embracing abstract concepts about economies, socio-political systems, spaces, and societies <em>in</em> the host <em>during</em> events. The mega-event utopia (in contrast to other utopian visions other stakeholders may hold) is dictated by the desires of the mega-event owners irrespective of the realities in the event host. In short, a mega-event utopia is the perfect event host from the owner’s perspective. Mega-event utopias are suggested as a theoretical model for the systematic transformation of their host cities. As large-scale events progress as ever more powerful transformers into this century, <em>mega-event dystopias</em> have emerged as negatives of these idealistic utopias. As hybrid post-event landscapes, m<em>ega-event heterotopias</em> manifest the temporary mega-event utopia as legacy imprints into the long-term realities in hosting cities. Using the Olympic utopia as an example of a mega-event utopia, I theorize utopian visions around four urban traits: economy, image, infrastructure and society. Through the concept of the <em>mega-event legacy utopia</em>, I also provide some insight toward the operationalization of the four urban traits for a city’s economic development, local place marketing, urban development, and public participation.

Mega-events, glocalisation and urban legacy: London as an event city and the 2012 Olympics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Roche
Keyword(s):  
Creative Industries ◽  
Urban Park ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
London 2012 ◽  
National Capital ◽  
Culturally Influenced ◽  
Mega Event ◽  
Cultural And Creative Industries ◽  
London Model

Mega-events exemplify the ‘glocalisation’ involved in global processes being embodied in local, urban contexts. This chapter explores this through the particular lens of mega-events staged in London and their urban legacies. London is understood as being both a Western and European world regional city as well as being a national capital. The chapter show how London has been physically marked and culturally influenced by a number of mega-events since the mid-19thC, particularly Expos and Expo-type events. They left long-term urban legacies, most notably in the cases of the ‘Albertopolis’ and Southbank cultural quarters. The chapter uses some of these introductory and historical themes to inform a detailed look into the case of the London 2012 Olympics and its various social and economic legacies. It shows the importance for the London model of mega-event legacy-making, of the construction of a major new urban park for social and environmental reasons. On the basis of a review of developments in the short- to medium-term post-Olympic period the chapter concludes that event planners’ hopes that the Olympic park can operate as a hub and catalyst also for economic and employment development, particularly in the cultural and creative industries, are credible.

scholarly journals Urban Development Through the 2018 FIFA Men’s Football World Cup: Mutated Mobile Policies in the Peripheries

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-41
Author(s):  
Свен Дэниель Вольфе
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Spatial Planning ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Central State ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
Developing Cities ◽  
The World ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Mega Event

Planners, politicians, boosters and other elites often use mega-events like the 2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup as a strategy for urban development. This was also the case with the World Cup, hosted in eleven Russian cities and designed to modernize Russia’s peripheral host cities. While the idea of developing cities through mega-events is common, the Russian experience displays much that is new. This paper examines urban development in the World Cup as an example of mobile policy, exploring how this mega-event was imported from abroad and how this policy mutated as it was implemented on the ground in Russia. The specificities of the Russian experience were due in large part to the ways in which the World Cup organizing committee was created and operated as an extension of the central government in Moscow. What appeared at first to be a way for Russian peripheral host cities to differentiate themselves through urban development in a form of inter-urban competition, turned out to be a reestablishment of the central state in regional spatial planning. In this way, even as certain material conditions in the host cities were improved, the World Cup represented not an expression of regional democracy, nor even a strategy for inter-urban differentiation, but rather one more instance of development dictated from the center and from afar.

scholarly journals S. DI VITA Y C. MORANDI - Mega-Events and Legacies in Post-Metropolitan Spaces. Expos and Urban Agendas

ZARCH ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 294
Author(s):  
Isabel Ezquerra Alcázar
Keyword(s):  
Mega Events ◽  
Event Planning ◽  
Mega Event

Stefano di Vita y Corinna MorandiMega-Events and Legacies in Post-Metropolitan Spaces. Expos and Urban AgendasMichigan (USA): Palgrave Macmillan, Mega Event Planning Pivot series, 2018. 152 páginas. Idioma: inglés.DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-67768-2

scholarly journals Delivering Sports Participation Legacies at the Grassroots Level: The Voluntary Sports Clubs of Glasgow 2014

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eilidh H.R. Macrae
Keyword(s):  
Phase 1 ◽  
Sports Participation ◽  
Sports Clubs ◽  
Mega Events ◽  
London 2012 ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Mega Event ◽  
Commonwealth Games

Voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) provide the primary opportunities for organized community sport in the UK and thus hold the responsibility for delivering on mega-event sports participation legacies. This study presents findings from open-ended questionnaires and interviews conducted in two phases (Phase 1—Spring, 2013; Phase 2—Summer, 2015) with representatives from a sample (n = 39) of VSCs to understand their ability to deliver on the participation legacy goals of London 2012 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Thematic analysis of the data outlined three themes where support for VSCs should be placed when planning future mega-events: building VSC capacity, retaining members in the long-term, and promoting general visibility of the VSC throughout the event. Bid teams who hope to use mega-events as catalysts for sports participation increases should direct funding and guidance toward VSCs to ensure they have the tools, knowledge, and capacity to deliver on national sports participation ambitions.

scholarly journals Beijing’s First Green Belt—A 50-Year long Chinese Planning Story

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 969
Author(s):  
Lu Sun ◽  
Christian Fertner ◽  
Gertrud Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The Political ◽  
Green Belt ◽  
Mega Events

This article traces the development process of Beijing’s First Green Belt from its origins in the 1950s, to its reinterpretation in the 1980s/1990s and its implementation in the 1990s/2000s. We identify three-time phases and important milestones, which kept the green belt idea alive, developed it and contextualized it in relation to the historical background. This article shows that the first green belt project in Beijing was a continuing process of changing functions and ranges. Its adaptability to variations followed the political changes and reflected the socio-economic dynamics, which secured its longevity. Different ideas shaped the plan and its link to mega events like the Olympic Games and environmental problems accelerated the implementation, but the shortage of funding and absence of legislation led to a compromised result. The case is an interesting example of how a long-term project transforms over and with time, but also for the gap between planning ambitions and actual urban development, illustrating past and contemporary urban planning in the context of a fast-developing country.

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